Not everyone looks at buttons, safety pins or metal coins and sees art, but for Ann Carrington, “all objects are saturated with cultural meaning. Mundane objects like knives, gloves, shoes, shells and tin cans come with their own ready-made histories.” Whenever she decides on what material she’s going to use for a certain work, there’s a certain reason for her choice. For example, her Pearly Queens series made with buttons was inspired by the Pearly Queens and Kings fashion movement, in London, while her bluejeans-made flag of America is a homage to this iconic American symbol.

All of Ann Carrington’s artworks are fascinating in their own way, but perhaps her most impressive project yet was the Pearly Queen of Jubilee Gardens, a mosaic made especially for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, from over 500,000 gold buttons on a red velvet background. Each of her unique creation take about 3-4 months to complete, as she never sits down to work on a single piece at a time.